Round Up: Crimson Dragon Reviews Not Soaring as High as Expected

Worrisome news, on-rail shooting fans. Crimson Dragon, the spiritual successor to the cult favorite Panzer Dragoon series, is earning itself a bevy of mediocre reviews. Currently sitting at a 54 on Metacrtic, reviewers have taken issue with the cumbersome control scheme and underwhelming visual presentation. Overall, not very many people seem to find the quality of Crimson Dragon meeting the standards set by the series it's styled after, but there are a couple glimmers of optimism.

A pleasant surprise. As a massive fan of the Panzer series, I was worried that this wouldn't quite honor it, but there's plenty here for gamers who have been longing for an entry since 2003's Orta. There are some mechanical problems, but any old-school rail shooter fan will be able to handle them.

Just don't expect anything particularly "next-gen" about the game. The visuals are reminiscent of any given game from the end of the X360 or PS3's life cycle. This is an update to an old style of gameplay, but there's not a lot new here. There's a lot of old to love, though.

I could forgive all of these missteps, the weird microtransactions, the underwhelming graphics, the off-kilter systems, if, on a very basic level, it was fun. It's not. Crimson Dragon manages to take riding on a sweet flying dragon and make it a bland, frustrating slog. In my book, that's about as unforgivable as sins come.

Will Crimson Dragon be landing on your Xbox One this weekend, or is it flying in a little too low for your tastes? Drag on to the comments and let us know!

Dave is an XBLA addict, platforming enthusiast, and lover of pizza. Being a tad exhausted by a market saturated with grim military shooters, he longs for the day that absurd anthropomorphic animal mascots return to inject some much needed color back into the world of gaming.

@DRL Yeah, I think I'm just going to get it anyway. The gameplay videos I've seen don't seem bad, but the reviews have been terrible. I did see today that there's going to be a gameplay patch for the game for launch.